Tuner Setup - New HTPC does not find tuners from main HTPC

[brobin10]

last night I got a new tv and htpc for my bedroom with the intention of using one of the 4 tuners from my pcie infinitv 4 that is in my htpc in my living room.

i can not get WMC on my htpc in my bedroom to detect any of the tuners from downstairs....of course everything is on the same network

after some googling i saw where i had to run the "network sharing" wizard on the pc where my infinitv 4 is installed.....i checked the ceton shortcut menu when WMC starts and there wasn't a network tuner icon under the ceton section like the guide showed so i re-installed the infinitv 4 software (why network sharing is set NOT to install by default doesnt make any sense)

after re-installing the infinitv 4 software there arent ANY ceton shortcuts when WMC starts....the entire ceton section is gone....i tried uninstalling and re-installing with the same results

what is going on and how do i get my htpc pc upstairs to detect the tuners that are on my main pc??

EDIT: i also installed the installtion software on the new htpc and the diagnostic tool also wont detect any tuners

[CoteRotie]

Which version of Windows are you running on each machine?

[brobin10]

Which version of Windows are you running on each machine?

my fault for leaving that off.....windows 7 home premium 32bit on both machines

[JohnW248]

Since this is a new PC have you:
1. Run the DCA on the new PC, passed it (don't have mc full screen) and accepted the changes and then ok'd the UAC message?
2. Set up a homegroup for the two machines and had them joined to share photo, documents, printers, and media?
3. In Recorded TV if you now click on Shared, does your other machine appear?
4. Are you running any AVS other than MS Security Essentials?
5. Is the Windows FW on? (It must be)
6. Did you run TV set-up in MC on the original machine and release a tuner so only three tuners appear in TV Set-up on that machine?

The way the network tuners work on the PCIe4 or USB 4 device is to assign each tuner to a host, the tuners are not pooled and picked at random so you must first have a tuner available and the machine has to be set-up to use cableCARD tuners and then follow the Ceton instructions to set-up network sharing.

[brobin10]

Since this is a new PC have you:
1. Run the DCA on the new PC, passed it (don't have mc full screen) and accepted the changes and then ok'd the UAC message?
2. Set up a homegroup for the two machines and had them joined to share photo, documents, printers, and media?
3. In Recorded TV if you now click on Shared, does your other machine appear?
4. Are you running any AVS other than MS Security Essentials?
5. Is the Windows FW on? (It must be)
6. Did you run TV set-up in MC on the original machine and release a tuner so only three tuners appear in TV Set-up on that machine?

The way the network tuners work on the PCIe4 or USB 4 device is to assign each tuner to a host, the tuners are not pooled and picked at random so you must first have a tuner available and the machine has to be set-up to use cableCARD tuners and then follow the Ceton instructions to set-up network sharing.

thanks for the info but where arent there any guides out there by ceton on doing that stuff?? the network tuning guide shows icons on the home screen of WMC but i guess those icons are now gone due to the newest version of the ceton software

also i have turned off all firewall nonsense so to avoid any problems with setup

EDIT: why cant i just run the network setup through WMC like the ceton guide shows...the main issue here seems to be that those icons are now completely removed from WMC
i think the two machines are setup to share via the network but i am not 100%

i need to double check if my other machine appears in shared under recorded tv

i did not release any tuners from the host pc i just figured the client should detect them and just use whatever is available....why doesnt this work??

also the client PC did not pass DCA but that shouldnt matter bc my host PC didnt either and it plays every channel including premium hd without any problems

[signcarver]

i did not release any tuners from the host pc i just figured the client should detect them and just use whatever is available....why doesnt this work??

This is probably your main problem... Network Tuners is not Tuner Pooling... each individual tuner (of the 4) must be assigned to one particular computer. Usually with windows 7 when you run the installation, it will only display available (unassigned) tuners... With a windows 8 client (win 8 cannot host) usually you do see all tuners on install but then that messes up the assignments made to the host if you don't do it manually and you still must then go back to the host (and other machines) and reclaim what win8 originally "stole"

Unless you really need live tv at that location, I would probably assign all 4 to the host to let it have access to all tuners and then just watch the recorded TV on the other computer... I say this since you stated the DCA wasn't necessary for your viewing so I am assuming your channels are copy freely.

You appeared for the most part to answer your other questions as much that was in the old guides has been depreciated from "controlling" (addins/diagnostics) the ceton from within WMC.

[JohnW248]

Since this is a new PC have you:
1. Run the DCA on the new PC, passed it (don't have mc full screen) and accepted the changes and then ok'd the UAC message?
2. Set up a homegroup for the two machines and had them joined to share photo, documents, printers, and media?
3. In Recorded TV if you now click on Shared, does your other machine appear?
4. Are you running any AVS other than MS Security Essentials?
5. Is the Windows FW on? (It must be)
6. Did you run TV set-up in MC on the original machine and release a tuner so only three tuners appear in TV Set-up on that machine?

The way the network tuners work on the PCIe4 or USB 4 device is to assign each tuner to a host, the tuners are not pooled and picked at random so you must first have a tuner available and the machine has to be set-up to use cableCARD tuners and then follow the Ceton instructions to set-up network sharing.

thanks for the info but where arent there any guides out there by ceton on doing that stuff?? the network tuning guide shows icons on the home screen of WMC but i guess those icons are now gone due to the newest version of the ceton software

also i have turned off all firewall nonsense so to avoid any problems with setup
EDIT: why cant i just run the network setup through WMC like the ceton guide shows...the main issue here seems to be that those icons are now completely removed from WMC
i think the two machines are setup to share via the network but i am not 100%

i need to double check if my other machine appears in shared under recorded tv

i did not release any tuners from the host pc i just figured the client should detect them and just use whatever is available....why doesnt this work??

also the client PC did not pass DCA but that shouldnt matter bc my host PC didnt either and it plays every channel including premium hd without any problems

Turning "off" the firewall is the wrong thing to do. The installer (for both Ceton and Silicon Dust) will write the necessary rules and open the necessary ports as long as the firewall is the Windows Firewall and is turn on.

Turn it off and the system will fail since some of the ports will not be defaults to open or accept the data. Try it again with the FW on and run set-up on the old MC and set it for three tuners and then run the DCA on the new machine and then run tv set-up and select the one Ceton Tuner you made available and click yes to set-up the computer for cableCARD which will download playready on that machine.

You don't mention the cable service you're on but more and more are moving everything to encryptions and more are marking things copy once. If you've set-up the new machine properly it will allow you to play recordings on the other machine (via recorded tv/shared) that are copy freely.

There are three levels to deal with: ClearQAM, Encryption (requires a cableCARD) and then the next level is Copy Once or Copy Never.

CleanQAM you can tune without a cableCARD or use one of the old HD HomeRun tuners, for encryption even if it is copy freely you have to have a cableCARD, and then anything that is copy once requires a cableCARD and can ONLY be played on the machine that made the recording (or an extender that is paired to that machine).

In your set-up you would have been easily served with an extender that wouldn't have required any of this and if the host machine is set-up properly it'll play your tv, live tv, movies, music, photos.

[erkotz]

Turning "off" the firewall is the wrong thing to do. The installer (for both Ceton and Silicon Dust) will write the necessary rules and open the necessary ports as long as the firewall is the Windows Firewall and is turn on.

Turn it off and the system will fail since some of the ports will not be defaults to open or accept the data. Try it again with the FW on and run set-up on the old MC and set it for three tuners and then run the DCA on the new machine and then run tv set-up and select the one Ceton Tuner you made available and click yes to set-up the computer for cableCARD which will download playready on that machine.

Turning off the firewall will not break things - it is a reasonable troubleshooting step.

[Yokel22]

"In your set-up you would have been easily served with an extender that wouldn't have required any of this and if the host machine is set-up properly it'll play your tv, live tv, movies, music, photos."

I couldn't disagree more with that statement. Especially if your referring to the echo. I run two PCI infinitv4's from a headless windows 8 server (yes, win8) with tuners assigned to multiple htpc's. They all work way better than the echo I have in the living room. The only real downside is that they require more electricity & space.

Back on topic: I have seen the ceton addin dissapear before as well. I believe my solution was a clean install of windows. You may be able to recover from a restore point if one was created. You can also setup network tuners manually following this guide: http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... =68&t=3926 . if none of that interest you, id open a support ticket with ceton. They may have a better solution.

[brobin10]

problem solved....set up my old hdhrcc prime and it worked like a charm....dynamic tuner pooling is a great thing

[grinchy]

problem solved....set up my old hdhrcc prime and it worked like a charm....dynamic tuner pooling is a great thing

How does dynamic tuner pooling work with conflicts? So if you have 4 tuners and machine A has 2 tuners in use and machine B has 2 in use and another recording is scheduled on either machine, does it stop an existing tuner to make the recording or does it just miss the recording? Does it notify you as such? I was always curious how that worked.

[brobin10]

i dont completely understand how dynamic tuner pooling works except that my hdhr prime works on any pc i load the software onto and ceton infinitv4 only works on the htpc that it is installed into

for kicks and giggles i "released" a tuner from my htpc where the infinitv4 is installed like JohnW248 said above and during WMC setup my second htpc still only detects my 3 tuners from hdhr prime

what gives ceton/infinitv4?

EDIT: i am using a MoCA adapter for ethernet on my second htpc....is this what is possibly throwing everything for a loop?

[erkotz]

i dont completely understand how dynamic tuner pooling works except that my hdhr prime works on any pc i load the software onto and ceton infinitv4 only works on the htpc that it is installed into

for kicks and giggles i "released" a tuner from my htpc where the infinitv4 is installed like JohnW248 said above and during WMC setup my second htpc still only detects my 3 tuners from hdhr prime

what gives ceton/infinitv4?

EDIT: i am using a MoCA adapter for ethernet on my second htpc....is this what is possibly throwing everything for a loop?

Did you set up Network Tuners on the host PC so that the tuner is bridged?

[brobin10]

on the host PC i installed the network tuners from the install package and set WMC to use 3 of the 4 ceton tuners - nothing else has been performed on the host pc

the ceton option from WMC is now removed and i don't know of anyway to run network tuners setup on the host pc

[brobin10]

i noticed i now have a "ceton network tuners" icon in the extras section of WMC....how did it get there suddenly? i did not run the network tuners setup or anything yet bc my hdhr prime is working just fine

seems to me it would have been easier if someone mentioned to look there or something along those lines earlier on

when the other posts said the ceton icons were gone i figured they were just that - gone.....didn't think the "network tuners" icon would pop up somewhere else in WMC

[brobin10]

now my ceton no longer works in windows media center....i get a "weak tv singal" error....everything has been working fine for months and nothing has changed with my coax or tv....ceton randomly decided to stop working last night

ceton diagnostic tool gives all check marks and says everything is fine of course

i removed and reinstalled the ceton software numerous times with the same result

its difficult enough to get the ceton to work on another pc but now it wont work on the pc that it has been working fine on for months

thank god i have my hdhr prime that can step in and work perfectly

what is wrong with my ceton now????